The Death of Common Sense....

ShatterResistant

An Obituary printed in the London Times.....

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense , who has been with us for many years.
No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn't always fair;
- and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more
than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in
charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but
overbearing regulations were set in place.
Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a
classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his
condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to
realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her
lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;
I Know My Rights
I Want It Now
Someone Else Is To Blame
I'm A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
If you still remember him, pass this on.
If not, join the majority and do nothing.


Would ye agree that a lack of common sense has led to society gone mad?

stimpson

Goodnight sweet prince.

mackg

really enjoyed that post but I'd say get rid of the bit about political correctness or the whole topic will be about that.:)

ShatterResistant

Just to clarify the poll is if Common Sense has come to a ridiculously LOW level.

hondasam

What a load of bull****. Is this more Facebook crap, pass it on.

tricky D

hooli07 wrote: »

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason

RIP

Will all be missed.

mackg

I voted wrong, I meant to say no. While I do think the cases in the OP show a lack of common sense, throughout history there are cases of much worse where from my point of view common sense was not followed ie.

1. the lad with the tache said put the jews in the ovens, sounds like a good idea.

2. the best way to operate a school is to beat the shit out of the kids on a daily basis.

3. those two lads are kissing each other, put them to death.

etc. etc. etc.

cocoshovel

Common sense isn't common. Everybody is thick as ****!

Stained Class

I enjoyed reading that.

Sadly, it's all too true.

Lotta people out there need firing into line IMO.

homerjay2005

when we allowed trade unions to take over the country, all common sense left us.

Dudess

These things smack of "Ee when I were a lad" cantankerousness. Most people still have common sense - that thing someone said about everyone being thick (excluding themselves I've no doubt) is bollocks.

Chuck Stone

Dudess wrote: »

These things smack of "Ee when I were a lad" cantankerousness. Most people still have common sense - that thing someone said about everyone being thick (excluding themselves I've no doubt) is bollocks.

Nostalgia was much better back in the day.

eth0

Dudess wrote: »

These things smack of "Ee when I were a lad" cantankerousness. Most people still have common sense - that thing someone said about everyone being thick (excluding themselves I've no doubt) is bollocks.

Most people still have common sense

Most people know that the health & safety and other regulations brought in the past 15 or so years are a load of ould shoite.

Still there are an awful lot of people who due to their job or the law have to put up with nonsensical regulations and there is little effort to change this.

Undoing bad laws is something modern governments are terrible at finding the time for and it's also the fact that if an incident happens that could potentially have been prevented by a particular law that was removed there will be an attempt to pass the blame to the government

pragmatic1

Yeah because nothing bad ever happened in the past with all the common sense floating around. GTFO.

inmyday

hondasam wrote: »

What a load of bull****. Is this more Facebook crap, pass it on.

THIS, Ive read this rubbish so many times. No way was it printed in the "London Times"

El Weirdo

Why do people insist on copying and pasting this kind of shit in here?

Frank Black

eth0 wrote: »

Most people know that the health & safety and other regulations brought in the past 15 or so years are a load of ould shoite.

Incorrect.

Particularly in the construction industry, H&S regulations have significantly reduced the rate of work related injuries.

El Weirdo

Actually, I'd like to find the cunt that sat down and copied them from the old photocopied-'till-they-were-barely-legible bits of A4 and handed round pubs and offices in the 80s and 90s, just so they could be emailed around and changed ever-so-slightly to make them seem more relevant.

I'd give him such a kick in the hole.

Millicent

eth0 wrote: »

Most people still have common sense

Most people know that the health & safety and other regulations brought in the past 15 or so years are a load of ould shoite.

Balls. Health and safety laws and regulations are there for people who don't have common sense. I'll give you an example:

I was receiving food safety training one day. During the training we were told that things should be defrosted in a fridge, not in the air. Some people found this unbelievable and were shocked that that was the case.

The trainer told us one story of a kitchen worker who she had trained. When asked where she defrosted the Christmas turkey to feed the staff, she said under the radiator. Under the bloody radiator.

There are good reasons for health and safety laws. Just because people think they know better and have common sense doesn't mean they do.

Pride Fighter

OP sounds like it comes from a crap British rag.

I think their is still plenty of common sense around. And I'd guess most of the stories from the OP are made up.

paddyandy

This new phone coming out soon called an"ice cream sandwich" made me believe that people are running away from reality and don't want to call anything by it's right name anymore.Style is removing substance and common sense is told to "take a hike".That was a great op but some posters simply don't do reality.

baalthor

El Weirdo wrote: »

Actually, I'd like to find the cunt that sat down and copied them from the old photocopied-'till-they-were-barely-legible bits of A4 and handed round pubs and offices in the 80s and 90s, just so they could be emailed around and changed ever-so-slightly to make them seem more relevant.

I'd give him such a kick in the hole.

But he'd probably then sue you for violating his human rights, innit

Johro

Common Sense was a 'he'?

eth0

black francis wrote: »

Incorrect.

Particularly in the construction industry, H&S regulations have significantly reduced the rate of work related injuries.

Or is it that they are simply not doing anything anymore, using Health & safety as an excuse to do nothing

"Tis too windy, we can't unload that truck for another 3 hours!"

Millicent wrote: »

Balls. Health and safety laws and regulations are there for people who don't have common sense. I'll give you an example:

I was receiving food safety training one day. During the training we were told that things should be defrosted in a fridge, not in the air. Some people found this unbelievable and were shocked that that was the case.

The trainer told us one story of a kitchen worker who she had trained. When asked where she defrosted the Christmas turkey to feed the staff, she said under the radiator. Under the bloody radiator.

There are good reasons for health and safety laws. Just because people think they know better and have common sense doesn't mean they do.

Back in the day her ma would have told them the proper place to defrost a turkey. Still I'd have no objection to eating a turkey that was defrosted under a radiator (except I don't like turkey)

El Weirdo

eth0 wrote: »

Or is it that they are simply not doing anything anymore, using Health & safety as an excuse to do nothing

The construction industry hardly needs an excuse to do nothing nowadays.

sock puppet

eth0 wrote: »

Or is it that they are simply not doing anything anymore, using Health & safety as an excuse to do nothing

"Tis too windy, we can't unload that truck for another 3 hours!"

Exactly. It's not like anyone has ever died in a high profile work accident due to windy conditions.

Millicent

eth0 wrote: »

Back in the day her ma would have told them the proper place to defrost a turkey. Still I'd have no objection to eating a turkey that was defrosted under a radiator (except I don't like turkey)

The proper place as in the fridge?

And Jesus. Let me know how the thundering shits work out for you if you ever get the opportunity to have radiator meat. :pac:

Dudess

paddyandy wrote: »

This new phone coming out soon called an"ice cream sandwich" made me believe that people are running away from reality and don't want to call anything by it's right name anymore.Style is removing substance and common sense is told to "take a hike".That was a great op but some posters simply don't do reality.

Oh yeah I know - some posters like to pretend there's this terrible LIBERAL conspiracy against them. And would prefer that children got beaten.

Someone's ma would tell them back in the day where to put the turkey - but their ma wouldn't now?

Yeah most of the stories in the OP are no doubt bullsh1t.

There is the very odd ridiculous case, but it's a rarity, not the norm - and sometimes it's made up.

I'm interested as to how it's made society go mad...

Logical Fallacy

You know what's funny.

The question in the pole doesn't indicate whether this new ridiculous level is a good thing or a bad thing.

Now THAT would have taken a bit of common sense.

Well done OP, your entire post is basically moaning about yourself.

Grats.

paddyandy

COMMON SENSE has to combat a flight from reality in western societies and the names from older ideas are frequently hijacked to disguise nonsense.Names on menus shop fronts
., names to describe behaviour,names that prompt an idea like "ice cream sandwich" for a phone and thousands of lie words.A fight on the street is now an "altercation"Where are we going at all ? People simple don't like reality and we spend a lot of our time in another type of world.Get on a bus and many have phones wired to their ears or stuck in a mag. or book.How much time do you spend in the real world????????????

Dudess

You're just being paranoid and reading an agenda into inane stuff - ice cream sandwich? Altercation? They're just words - who gives a fuk?

El Weirdo

paddyandy wrote: »

COMMON SENSE has to combat a flight from reality in western societies and the names from older ideas are frequently hijacked to disguise nonsense.Names on menus shop fronts
., names to describe behaviour,names that prompt an idea like "ice cream sandwich" for a phone and thousands of lie words.A fight on the street is now an "altercation"Where are we going at all ? People simple don't like reality and we spend a lot of our time in another type of world.Get on a bus and many have phones wired to their ears or stuck in a mag. or book.How much time do you spend in the real world????????????

You do realise that Ice Cream Sandwich is just a codename for a version of the Android OS? It's not an actual phone.

I really don't see why you have a problem with this.

Nodin

paddyandy wrote: »

.........Get on a bus and many have phones wired to their ears or stuck in a mag. or book.How much time do you spend in the real world????????????

Dear Jesus...people READING?????!!!!???? The collapse of society is imminent!!!

El Weirdo

Also:

paddyandy wrote: »

How much time do you spend in the real world????????????

He says on an internet forum.

paddyandy

El Weirdo wrote: »

You do realise that Ice Cream Sandwich is just a codename for a version of the Android OS? It's not an actual phone.

I really don't see why you have a problem with this.

There is always an excuse but never a reason.

mackg

@Dudess

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to
realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her
lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

The stuff in bold is true.

The stuff in italics is believable.

The stuff underlined is debatable.

Other stuff sounds a little far fetched, but to say "most of the stuff is no doubt bull shit" is wrong.

I don't disagree with your views on the subject on the whole but the OP's examples were not completely fabricated.

paddyandy

El Weirdo wrote: »

Also:



He says on an internet forum.

Some where better?

mackg

El Weirdo wrote: »

You do realise that Ice Cream Sandwich is just a codename for a version of the Android OS? It's not an actual phone.

I really don't see why you have a problem with this.

The real problem is the jedward phone.

paddyandy

Deceit has now got acceptance and respectability too!

Dudess

paddyandy wrote: »

Deceit has now got acceptance and respectability too!

In what sense? The days of old weren't as wonderful as your rose-tinted specs tell you they were. Seems like you just resent younger people having more than you had.

Mike 1972

hooli07 wrote: »

If you still remember him, pass this on.

Oh for crysakes is this one still doing the rounds :rolleyes:

krudler

I work with the public every day, common sense is rare than unicorn sh1te these days.

Dudess

krudler wrote: »

I work with the public every day, common sense is rare than unicorn sh1te these days.

True - the inflated sense of entitlement and lack of personal responsibility is mind-blowing, but I'm not convinced this is a new phenomenon.

krudler

Dudess wrote: »

True - the inflated sense of entitlement and lack of personal responsibility is mind-blowing, but I'm not convinced this is a new phenomenon.

definitely not, lack of accountability is rampant these days, people who complain they've been cut off for not paying a bill for 5 months is staggering to me, we provide a service, you havent paid for it ergo you dont get it until you do, simples. welcome to real life where you're accountable for your own actions.

the one I love is this, I hear it at least a dozen times a week. someone who has a 4-500 euro bill, and wants to pay a tenner a week on it cos they're on the dole. errr, right, you're on the dole and still run up a 500 quid bill you know you cant pay, yet still expect to get a service you havent paid for and run up MORE bills putting yourself into more debt, genius.

desertcircus

hooli07 wrote: »

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to
realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her
lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

This is complete garbage. The woman in question did not fail to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, she failed to realise that the coffee she'd bought from McDonalds was served at 85 degrees centigrade instead of the more usual 60 degrees - a temperature coffee shops will usually provide only on specific request. She did not spill a little in her lap; she had third degree burns over six percent of her body (including her genitals) and had to get skin grafts. She was not promptly awarded a huge settlement; she was willing to settle for $20,000, which McDonalds refused, and ended up getting $640,000 (out of which came the cost of those skin grafts. Subsequent investigation of the McDonalds in question revealed that they had reduced the temperature of their coffee to 70 degrees C.

This isn't a story about a greedy jerk who made a fortune out of a legal loophole - this is about a seventy-nine-year old woman who was served a dangerously hot cup of coffee that burned the skin off her genitals and six percent of her entire body, and was ignored when she offered to settle for $20k. You might not agree with how the case went, but it's nothing to do with common sense.

Dudess

Haha, I knew there had to be more to that story!

Whenever someone uses the phrase "a bit of" to put forward a fallacious argument, you can be pretty certain the truth is actually "a lot of". :pac:

tbh

desertcircus wrote: »

This is complete garbage. The woman in question did not fail to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, she failed to realise that the coffee she'd bought from McDonalds was served at 85 degrees centigrade instead of the more usual 60 degrees - a temperature coffee shops will usually provide only on specific request. She did not spill a little in her lap; she had third degree burns over six percent of her body (including her genitals) and had to get skin grafts. She was not promptly awarded a huge settlement; she was willing to settle for $20,000, which McDonalds refused, and ended up getting $640,000 (out of which came the cost of those skin grafts. Subsequent investigation of the McDonalds in question revealed that they had reduced the temperature of their coffee to 70 degrees C.

This isn't a story about a greedy jerk who made a fortune out of a legal loophole - this is about a seventy-nine-year old woman who was served a dangerously hot cup of coffee that burned the skin off her genitals and six percent of her entire body, and was ignored when she offered to settle for $20k. You might not agree with how the case went, but it's nothing to do with common sense.

I was just coming on to say exactly that, except you said it better.
Another thing about that case is that it was the last in a line of an estimated seven HUNDRED cases taken against McDonalds involving injuries caused by their coffee. It was last in line because it generated so much publicity and forced McDs to do what they should have done after the first case.

And that's what health & safety is all about. Of course it goes too far sometimes, but the majority of "health and safety gone mad" stories that you hear about are huge exaggerations that don't stand up when you examine the actual facts - something most people are too lazy to do.

The reality is that H&S forces companies to spend money on things that they otherwise wouldn't. If you don't believe me, have a look at the poor fcukers in India, cleaning windows on skyscrapers hanging off crap scaffolding with no protective equipment.

Oh and by the way, no way an op as poorly written as that would ever make it into the times, it wouldn't even make it into the Herald. The fact that whoever wrote it has to pretend that it did appear in the times to lend it credibility should tell you everything you need to know about the content of it.

desertcircus

Gah, the more I look at this the angrier I get. It's filled with nonsense.

hooli07 wrote: »

Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a
classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his
condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to
realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her
lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

In order:

1. Six-year-old boy suspended for kissing a classmate? Cannot find mention of where this happens - there are repeated reference to it in a story about a different child suspended for sexual harassment, but that particular case ended in the family being awarded a six-figure sum, so clearly the system works reasonably well to correct such things.

2. Kid suspended for using mouthwash? The school had previously expressed concern and had a zero-tolerance policy on alcohol, and the student in question had been boasting about how he was going to get drunk on mouthwash.

3. Literally the only hit on Google for "teacher fired reprimanding student" is links to various forms of this letter. I don't actually know what this refers to...

Dudess

A six-year-old boy was not suspended for sexual harassment in any rational society. Maybe in some basket-case dictatorship or fundamentalist society.

The fact that some folks just accept this stuff and don't bother questioning it... yeah I guess that kinda does indicate common sense is lacking...

krudler

paddyandy wrote: »

There is always an excuse but never a reason.

there isnt really a reason apple name their osx software stuff like lion or snow leopard, they're just names. android gingerbread and ice cream sandwich are just fun names for an operating system.

Coriolanus

Mmm, copypasta with the Sunday roast.